I've got a problem in that I don't have a big enough container to mix salt water for my initial fill + water changes for curing...

So I thought I'd age the water in the tank. But the thought of mixing all that salt in my glass tank makes me shiver.....

Could I heat enough water to dissolve that massive amount of salt, then siphon it into the freshwater (soon to be salt) in the sump while its circulating through my tank system, and do final adjustments from there?

What about the metal pot (on the stove)? Will hot water change the properties of the salt mix?

And can I use tap 'til I ge through curing and then switch to RO/DI? I'd hate to transport that much water from the LFS ~30 mi. away... (don't have an RO/DI, but may get one later). But I'll do it if its necessary, just means a trip with the truck and trailer and a lot of waiting. I don't think the Toyota needs all that weight on the leaf springs...

ANy other solution I haven't thought about?

EBL

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Drank more fishh2o there.... more than any whale's momma ever seen.... WSP

First off, how big is the tank? Second, is this a space or money issue? There are alternatives, but if we don't know the reasons why, we can't offer up suggestions.

Home depot has ~40 gallon brute trashcans for a couple of bucks. These are more than enough to mix new water in. No big deal if you've got to make multiple batches. Mix it up anywhere, garage, basement, etc. The gray ones are saltwater and food safe. They store easily, and don't really take up much space.

You need at least an RO if you are going for a reef tank, RO/DI even better depending on the quality of your tap.. You can get a RO/DI pretty inexpensively nowadays, no need going with a fancy name RO/DI, you can get a great unit from AirWaterIce for less than $200. You don't want to be carting water around, it's going to get more expensive than a RO/DI very quickly. A Ro/Di is an investment, it saves you money and time in the long run.

Do not use tap, even for curing, you can potentially be adding a massive amount of nutrients, metals, ammonia, copper, and worst of all, chlorine and chloramine to your tank. You don't want to expose your rock to this mess, it may become a sink for those nutrients and reward you with a very long and nasty algae bloom This is not a good way to start your tank. Other issues with using tap include cloudy water from high mineral content causing preciptation of calcium carbonate..

Do not mix saltwater in metal pots, even stainless steel ones. It's always good practice to never let your pure water or saltwater ever come in contact with any metals, especially ones whose content and stability in saltwater is unknown. There is only one exception to this rule, and that is the metal heat exchanger in a chiller, which is usually titanium.

Ah, one last piece of info, do not mix up the water in your tank unless your tank is empty, you'll likely kill off everything in the tank by doing that. Freshly mixed saltwater is not marine life friendly.

edit: i must of been posting when grim was, so thats the resson 4 some of same info. hay man, big is this tank?

cause u can just go to wal-mart , or any where to get a container (rubber trash
can) to mix ur water in.
as far as the tap water, its not recommend so buyer b ware.
oh and the hot water may cause ptoblems with the tanks silicone, it not worth it
just b patient .
PS : home depot sells empty 5g jugs, adn u may find a LFS who sells RO/DI water.

Tank is 75 g. sump probably around 50, Totally new system so no livestock..I've read enough not to make that mistake!

The issue is not space, and may be $- but not really for this problem. Here is my issue--after filling my 45g tub or whatever, I have to wait for the temp to rise before adding salt to test for SG. Soooo, wouldn't it take days and days to fill a tank waiting all that time for water to heat? Then mix, then siphon, ad infinitum...

But I won't use tap... Thanks for the info. I wondered about that and posted a question earlier, but got the tap-OK from someone else. But I asked again in this post b/c that answer still made me a little nervous...

As for the RO/DI, I will get one eventually. But if I can get away with using the LFS water for a few months @10 cents/gall, then I can dedicate that $ to my initial set-up. And as we all know, initial set-up is important and expensive... Rather spend the money on things that will be difficult/expensive to change or upgrade, I'd get the best I can off the bat for the things that are really important (skimmers, lights, pumps, LR,etc.)

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!
EBL

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Drank more fishh2o there.... more than any whale's momma ever seen.... WSP